Infrared-to-Bluetooth converter roundup: get universal control of your PS3

So, here's a conundrum for ya. Sony's PlayStation 3 has been all but universally hailed as a stellar Blu-ray player and a respectable part of any home theater. But Sony forgot to include an IR receptor on the thing, making it incompatible with the vast majority of universal remotes on the market. Solution? An Infrared-to-Bluetooth converter. For the longest while, the original IR2BT was the de facto choice for handling the conversion, but now that it has been replaced with the more expensive (and versatile, in fairness) IR2BTci, CNET decided to roundup three other viable options so you, the almighty consumer, could make the choice that serves you best. Hit the read link for a gathering of the reviews, and don't forget to curse Sony for making you go through this exercise in the first place.

Update: RemoteShoppe has a similar, and equally helpful, roundup of its own.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 25th 2008 7:35AM]

Well that was a really annoying and unhelpful article. "Converters 1, 2 and 3 are all pretty expensive (but we won't list the prices) but do everything you need, while the $20 converter that everyone knows about won't turn the system on or off."

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 25th 2008 7:59AM]

A IR/Bluetooth universal pro remote would be big nice

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 25th 2008 11:48PM]

What company in their right mind would make a Universal remote that Supports Blue Tooth, just for the 1 and ONLY device that uses is because Sony was to cheap to throw on IR and instead use something it already had! If it was so great, How come not even SONY has release any other hardware including stand alone Blu-Ray Players that use it or at least support it along with IR?!?!?! To me it was s huge Sony BooBoo and the #2 reason why I haven't gotten a PS3, nor will I spend extra money to buy one of these work around hacks to fix Sony's stupid move.

[Cheesehead Dave Posted Nov 25th 2008 8:08AM]

I've been using the Nyko adapter for aver a year now and have been mostly happy with it. Not being able to power up the system really isn't that big of a downside; you have to walk up to the PS3 to insert your movie anyway and when you do, the system powers itself up.

The biggest downside which I didn't see mentioned is when you want to play games, if you power up the system by pressing the PS button on a controller, the Nyko gets assigned as controller one, and the one you powered up from gets assigned as number two, meaning that when you start a game, you'll always have to go in and reassign the control number.

BTW, I didn't have to do any "learning" with my Harmony 880 remote. The codes were already available when I programmed the remote.

[S4Rs Posted Nov 25th 2008 8:40AM]

I wish I could find out how to get the discrete BT commands that sony uses. If my laptop has an IR reciever, and it also has bluetooth, why cant I just route the remote through my laptop if a program is running. Or use my laptop as a remote if its on the couch with me. And why the hell doesn't my laptop allow itself to be a human interface device either so I can use its keyboard and trackball to type in my PS3.

I could go on for hours with this.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 25th 2008 8:57AM]

Good points

[S4Rs Posted Nov 25th 2008 9:06AM]

How about my Moto Q smartphone too. Its got a full keyboard and bluetooth. Oddly enough, the only phones I have seen that support the HID profile for bluetooth dont have a full keyboard. (Sony cell-phones)

[MickBurke Posted Nov 25th 2008 2:01PM]

Or sony could say 'wow, that was a dumb idea, lets get IR in that puppy'

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 25th 2008 2:48PM]

Here's a BlueTooth universal remote:

http://www.ricavision.com/vave100.html

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 25th 2008 9:45PM]

So do any of these turn the PS3 on and off? I have the BluWave, and it is my only complaint on it.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 25th 2008 11:52PM]

Does it say anything about controlling the PS3? NO, because there's no other Audio/Video hardware using Blue Tooth other then the PS3.